Low-achieving school overhauled

Felicita Elementary to get new teachers, principal and high-tech equipment in effort to boost lagging scores

FELICITA ELEMENTARY TRANSFORMATION

What: The school is being overhauled because it was rated as one of six persistently low-performing schools in the county, and the only such poor-performing school in North County.

How: Instead of closing it or turning it into a charter school, the Escondido Union School District chose to transform it, which means it will have a new principal and an almost all-new faculty in the coming school year. The school also can expect up to $2 million more each year in grants to carry out the transformation plan, which include extensive use of iPods and computers.

ESCONDIDO  Escondido’s Felicita Elementary School will begin the school year in the fall with new leadership, new teachers, new high-tech learning equipment, longer hours and more money to boost lagging test scores.

The school is trying to shed its status as the only persistently underperforming school in North County.

But it also will have a lot of wounds to heal. Parents didn’t want their children’s favorite teachers to leave, and students didn’t want to lose them.

Like it or not, change is coming, Escondido Union School District Superintendent Jennifer Walters said.

“Some restructuring and change would be good to establish different expectations,” Walters said.

The changes came about because Felicita has not met state test score improvement standards for the past five years.

In March, the state named the school a persistently low-achiever, one of six in the county and the only one in North County.

Felicita has 700 students — 79 percent of them are English learners and 91 percent depend on free and reduced lunches.

Although other Escondido schools have similarly large numbers of English learners and those who come from a poverty background, they made more gains and were not placed on the low-achiever list, Walters said.

She attributed the low scores at Felicita to the high number of English learners who live in poverty, the inability of their non-English speaking parents to help them with their schoolwork and the transient nature of that student population.

“One kid had been in six schools in one year,” Walters said.

The Escondido Elementary Educators Association, however, said some Felicita teachers blamed the test-score rut on a reading program, Reading First, which they said was too rigid for Spanish speakers, such as schedules by which students need to achieve a milestone. They said that as a result, test scores, which had been rising, fell.

Once a school has been declared consistently low-performing, federal regulations dictate several choices — close the school, turn it into a charter school, or transform it. District school board members chose the latter.

As part of the transformation, the district changed its principal and moved in new teachers. Current principal Henry Leso will be replaced by Rock Springs Elementary Principal Kathy Morrios. Leso will become an assistant principal at Del Dios Middle School.

All but eight of the 31 teachers are being transferred — voluntarily and involuntarily — and replaced by teachers who applied for their jobs from within the school district.

Lorena Reynoso, a second-grade teacher who was being transferred, said recently that the district had handled the overhaul poorly because it never gave teachers specific reasons why they were being transferred, and told parents of its plans too late.

She said the school will always have to deal with the fact that a lot of its students are simply not interested in learning.

“I see a real lack of interest in education now. I don’t know what’s going on at home,” Reynoso said.

Romero Maratha, president of the Escondido Elementary Educators Association, said that the transformation plan that the district adopted did not require it to transfer so many teachers.

“It sounds good to get rid of the teachers, but when the school year begins, they will have a brand new staff and lots of issues,” he said.

To boost Felicita’s scores, the district is applying for federal grants that could bring up to $2 million a year for three years to augment the school’s budget. That money will be used to buy iPods, believed to be an effective teaching tool for reading and math because students love gadgets. The school day also will be 40 minutes longer.

Some existing teachers noted, with irony, that it took a low state ranking for the district to give Felicita the attention and money it has always needed to improve its test scores.

Parents, however, focused their criticism on the faculty changes.

At a recent school board meeting, four parents presented a petition with 70 names to plead with the trustees to keep existing teachers at Felicita because their children loved them.

“We didn’t have a say in this,” said Alejandra Moreno, whose daughter, Jasmine, is in fourth grade. “Most of our best teachers are leaving. It’s an unfair position you guys put me in.”

Another parent, Graciela Montes de Oca, said through a Spanish translator that the school board has not been responsive to parents’ requests.

“You don’t understand us,” she said. “Every question we ask, you always speak to us like politicians. I feel you’re not speaking … the truth. It’s not fair for you to get rid of the teachers without an explanation.”

The next day, Walters met with 25 parents to discuss the teacher-selection process, but parents still weren’t satisfied. They plan to return to the board later this month to repeat their plea, said Jose Fragoso, a community activist.

At Felicita, students said on a recent day that they wanted their teachers to stay, too.

“I’m going to miss them,” said third-grader Nelson Ramos, 9.

Morris, the new principal, said the sadness should not linger because students and families will soon discover how much the new teachers care about them.

“We can work together to really build a school that is going to be amazing for their children,” Morris said.

In addition to improving test scores, Felicita also will improve parent education so parents can help their children with their schoolwork, Walters said.

Felicita’s current parent involvement liaison, Laura Rodriguez, who will stay, said she already is holding 60 parent workshops a year, teaching everything from the vocabularies their children learned to making the most of parent-teacher conferences.

So far, she’s had 20 to 50 parents show up for her workshops, and she’s trying to reach out to more.

“Parent involvement is a districtwide issue,” she said. “But (those who do show up) are committed.”